This time last year, I had the opportunity to talk to Dr. David Price of London-based NetNames shortly after they released a report on the scale and scope of media piracy worldwide. Presently, Dr. Price is in Washington DC where, along with collaborator Tom Galvin of the Digital Citizens Alliance, he officially released a new report on piracy, this one focused entirely on sites known as cyberlockers. Titled “Behind the Cyberlocker Door,” the report focuses on the top thirty sites that use this technology to facilitate and profit from the illegal distribution of copyrighted content like motion pictures, music, books, and video games. The report describes how these black-market businesses function, and how they earn their money. And among the more striking aspects of the study is the fact that Visa and Master Card, despite claims to the contrary, are facilitating transactions for these cyberlocker sites. Moreover, users of these sites may be surprised to learn that signing up for premium accounts to enable faster downloads could well expose them to malware designed to enable identity theft.
As most people know, we are this week watching a developing story after some as yet unidentified hacker, or hackers, gained access to naked photos of a handful of celebrity women and published them on the web. As that investigation unfolds, especially into what appears to be a failure in the security of Apple’s iCloud server, many of us non-celebrities are naturally wondering how safe our information is, but we are probably still underestimating just how dangerous it can be to become the target of a hacker with the right skills and too much time on his hands. The lines between hacking, identity theft, and stalking can get blurry very fast, and my guest on this podcast has some insightful, first-hand experience with that frightening reality.
Photo by Melissa Hamburg.
In her early 20s, Leandra Ramm had her life and career derailed by a cyberstalker operating halfway around the world in Singapore. It was about ten years ago when Leandra was an aspiring opera singer, living and working in New York City, her career just taking off, when she appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper to talk about her origins from the Genius Sperm Bank. A Singaporean named Colin Mak Yew Loong saw the broadcast on CNN International and from that moment on, he made Leandra one of what turned out to be his many projects in stalking, harassment, and threats of violence. The experience cost Leandra many professional opportunities, made her terrified for her safety, and left her in a continued state of anxiety.
Pressing a case of international cyberstalking is extremely difficult because laws vary nation to nation, and some countries have no cyberstalking laws whatsoever. Nevertheless, Leandra pursued her stalker aggressively along with the help of digital forensics examiner, A.J. Fardella, and as of last December, Mr. Loong is serving a three-year sentence as the first person ever convicted in a case involving cyberstalking across borders.
Leandra also wrote a book about her experience called Stalking A Diva, in collaboration with attorney D. Rocca. Today, these two women, along with Mr. Fardella, represent the founding members of the Alliance Against Cybercrime, a new organization designed to address stalking and other forms of Internet-based crime through international advocacy, policy initiatives, and public outreach. Leandra’s case and this new alliance were instrumental in helping to pass Singapore’s Protection from Harassment Act in March of 2014.
I am also happy to report that Leandra’s singing career resumed after her ordeal. She continues to work in a wide range of genres, both recording and performing live.
Jennifer Lyn Morone Part IJennifer Lyn Morone Part II
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we are presently grappling with existential questions posed by big data and at the same time, considering the social implications of rulings by the supreme court in both Citizens United and Hobby Lobby. In fact, I believe we have an unprecedented mandate at this point in history to more rigorously consider the distinction between human beings their inventions. The nature of existence itself is changing as we atomize experience into data that is bought and sold as a new commodity. At the same time, many of us in the United States are concerned about the precedents set when corporate entities appear to be endowed with the same rights as living beings. A corporation is a tool. Technology is a tool. But whether us makers are using these tools or they are using us is a question yet to be answered. And examination includes choices about personal privacy and the economic value of ourselves as expressed in a body of data.
In this podcast, I talk with Jennifer Lyn Morone, who is in the start-up phase of bringing to market Jennifer Lyn Morone™ Incorporated. An American artist who has lived in Europe for more than a decade, Morone has chosen to address these social, economic, and existential questions with a venture that is part experiment, part cultural statement, and part business. By incorporating herself, Jennifer Lyn Morone will now be the CEO of Jennifer Lyn Morone, Inc., and that means literally treating her life, her experiences, her knowledge, even her biological data, as a set of assets to be fully managed and monetized at the discretion of the corporation. This Fall, Morone will begin using a combination of cameras and data recording technology to track her activities and store information on servers controlled by the corporation. I think this is not going to be just another example of web-enabled voyeurism. Morone is serious about the business venture, and she’s eager to share what she learns as she explores the dual nature of being both a person and a corporation.
The Illusion of More is my personal blog from December 2011 to December 2025. As of February 2026, I am no longer posting new blogs or other content, but I hope you enjoy this archive. Please do not attribute any of my writings here to my current or previous employers.
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